This invention relates to a novel, reusable medical needle protection station.
The risk of needlestick transmitted infection to hospital personnel is well known. Conventional needles are now universally provided by their manufacturers with a snap on or threaded on hollow cap which is removed just prior to use. A common area wherein needlestick injuries occur is in handling needles after they are temporarily or permanently withdrawn from fluid connection with a patient. In particular, the recapping of needles poses a high risk of needlestick and is now considered a violation of universal precautions and is prohibited by OSHA in the hospital environment.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult for the nurse to deal with the exposed needle after use if the nurse can not cap it. Ideally, the nurse would immediately drop this exposed and contaminated needle into a waste receptacle for disposal. However, such receptacles are not always in close proximity to the nurse at the time of the needle withdrawal and therefore the nurse often has to lay the needle on a table or hold the needle in one hand while she finishes the task at hand. During this time, the nurse is potentially exposed to needlestick risk, as are any other hospital personnel who may come into contact with the needle if it is displaced from the table and becomes lost in a bedsheet or is otherwise contacted. Despite the fact that recapping is forbidden it is in fact a common procedure for the simple reason that no practical alternative is available.
In addition to the needlestick risk to hospital personnel of recapping, the needle itself may become contaminated with microorganisms during recapping. As the nurse begins to recap the needle, the tip of the needle can easily contact the side of the cap potentially resulting in contamination. In addition, unless the nurse uses a new cap from a sterile package each time the needle is recapped, the original cap is potentially contaminated if the hollow interior of the cap has been exposed to the ambient nonsterile environment for an significant length of time.
Thus, in the administration of piggyback medications, if the nurse chooses to recap, the nurse should use a new cap, each from their own separate sterile package. Indeed, due to the risk of injury of hospital personnel all authorities presently recommend that an entire new needle and cap be utilized each time a piggyback medication is given to a patient despite the additional expense and time required. For economic and practical reasons that procedure often is not followed.
The universal coupler of my pending application Ser. No. 07/509,638 filed Apr. 17, 1990 (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference) makes recapping without risk of infection to hospital personnel possible because the invention is configured so as to inhibit the digit of the human hand from entering the space which contains the needle. However, even with use of this coupler the other aforementioned problems relative to capping would still exist. In particular, there remains the problem of the interior of caps becoming contaminated after they have been removed from the needle. Therefore, the nurse, to be completely safe, must obtain a new cap each time she recaps my universal connector if the interior of the previous cap has been exposed to the ambient environment for a substantial period of time.
Blunt needles and cannula are now being used in place of the conventional sharp needle because the risk of such a blunt tip piercing the skin is remote. However, the contamination problem with microorganisms during recapping discussed above is still present with these devices.